Overview

The MassGeneral Hospital for Children is a children’s hospital within a world class hospital. Leveraging the resources of this academic center, we are able to meet the diverse and unique learning, research and clinical interests of each of our incredibly talented residents. We do that within a close-knit community where resident support and mentorship are the cornerstones of a safe and productive learning environment. We are a program are invested in your individual and very personal experience of residency.

A Program Designed to Meet Your Individualized Needs

Academically, you are encouraged to design residency to meet your individualized needs. Rather than track residents into pre-defined pathways, we provide an opportunity for residents to explore their diverse interests and create their own path in residency, tailored to individual learning and career needs. Nine months of our residency training are determined by the resident. Residents choose even the “core” subspecialty months, rather than being simply scheduled for a required inpatient subspecialty month. Three months can be completely self- designed and we have had residents create incredibly rich and diverse rotations such pediatric care on a ship-hospital in Cambodia, comparative zoology with veterinarians, creating an emergency medicine curriculum for a brand-new residency program in rural Kenya and working with the Chief Quality Office of the hospital. At MGHfC, one-size does not fit all and no two residents have the exact same training experience because no two residents are exactly the same.

Unparalleled Access to Senior Faculty

Our approach to mentoring is multi-faceted and is adjusted to the needs of the residents. Early in the intern year, residents participate in a mentorship workshop, complete mentoring self-assessments and have an in-person meeting with the chief residents who then work with the administrative team to carefully choose a mentor for each resident based on his/her self-identified interests and mentorship needs. There are group mentoring sessions designed to help residents choose scholarly projects and meet faculty doing research in a speed-dating type model. In the fall we have faculty and graduates come together in the evening for discussions over dinner about careers in acute care, hospital medicine, pediatric medical subspecialties and primary care. These are but a few examples of ways that we try to actualize the view of mentorship as a network, not a single person. At MGHfC, not only are you working in a world-class environment, but you are working directly with the world-class leaders.

The Resources of Massachusetts General Hospital

Institution-wide resources within the Centers of Expertise allow trainees numerous opportunities including small group workshops, funding opportunities, and access to faculty leaders to refine their skills in the areas of Global and Humanitarian Health, Health Policy and Management, Medical Education, Patient Care Quality and Patient Safety and Research). Through initiatives such as this, you gain access not only to leaders in the field of pediatrics, but leaders in medicine across specialties and you become part of a broader community of graduate medical trainees at MGH and Partners. With the current speed of medical advancements, pediatrics can no longer stay insular and pediatricians must work in a broader context of medicine.

A Program Committed to Diversity in All Aspects of the Word

MGHfC strives to create a welcoming environment for its residents, faculty, staff, and patients. As an MGHfC resident, you will have the privilege of caring for patients from a wide range of different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds at our main campus in Boston, our community health centers in Charlestown, Revere and Chelsea, and our affiliated community hospitals in Cambridge, Salem and Newton. MGH Chelsea Health Center, for example, cares for one of the largest and most diverse immigrant populations in all of Massachusetts! Our residents and staff come from many different backgrounds as well. We cannot think of a more perfect example than our own Pediatric Cardiology Department, where our staff of doctors is fluent in at least 5 different languages! MGHfC is committed to recruiting and supporting a multicultural workforce of pediatricians to reflect our beautiful and diverse patient population. We are proud to collaborate with the MGH Center for Diversity and Inclusion as well the LGBT Employee Resource Group to promote and support underrepresented minorities in medicine throughout MGH.

Life-Long Relationships

The motto of care for patients at MGHfC is “Once we start caring, we never stop;” it is meant to reflect the value we place in caring for patients from in utero through birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and end of life. Once a patient at MGH, always a patient at MGH. Similarly, once you’ve joined the MGHfC Residency family, you will always be a part of it. Graduates routinely return to “catch up” and share news of personal life events with program directors and faculty, but even more importantly, to receive mentorship as their careers unfold.. It is not a coincidence that many of our graduates over the years have stayed or come back to the MGHfC at some point in their careers, and we take pride in the extended family of MGHfC pediatricians we are creating.

Our Residents

Residency Leadership

Curriculum

We train physicians in all aspects of general pediatrics with an emphasis on graduated autonomy and individualized training. With mentorship, you choose your own subspecialty electives and created your own individuated curriculum rotations. Our goal is to prepare you for a lifetime of service to children whether you choose a career as a generalist or as a pediatric specialist. Consequently, our residents experience the full range of the practice of pediatrics including community health clinics and private practices, community hospitals and world-renowned quaternary care centers. Our graduates enter all fields of pediatrics and we value the chance to train both community-oriented primary care pediatricians and subspecialist pediatrician scientists.

Subspecialty Elective & Pediatric Individualized Curriculum (PIC) RotationsAcademically, residents are encouraged to design residency to meet their individualized needs. Rather than track residents into pre-defined and potentially narrow categories, we provide an opportunity for residents to explore their diverse interests and create a residency specific to their own learning and career needs. Six months of subspecialty elective rotations are chosen by the residents from the many options allowed by the ACGME (link). An additional three months of “individualized curriculum” can be completely self-designed and we have had residents create incredibly rich and diverse rotations such working on a hospital-boat in Cambodia, working on comparative zoology with veterinarians, working in Kenya to create an emergency medicine curriculum and working with the Chief Quality Office of the hospital. At MGHfC, one-size does not fit all and no two residents have the exact same training experience because no two residents are exactly the same.

Faculty

Our faculty are leaders in their fields. They are also incredibly available to trainees for mentorship, guidance and clinical supervision. Working directly with the faculty, without a large number of fellows in between, is an often-cited highlight of the program by our residents. We invite applicants to read more about our faculty and our clinical and research programs by exploring the MGHfC home pageand reading about recent MGHfC news and events.

Resident Community

One of the best things about the MassGeneral Hospital for Children Pediatric Residency is the people!

Each year, the residency program gets together for multiple exciting social activities, taking advantage of the incredible city of Boston around us as well as the beautiful New England countryside that surrounds the city on three sides.

Specifically, we have a regularly scheduled happy hour, which in the early 2000’s was lovingly entitled “Phatty Liver Rounds”—and the name has stuck! Some of our most recent activities have included apple picking and wine tasting at Nashoba Valley Winery and Orchard, drinks and appetizers at resident homes, bowling at Sacco’s with gourmet brick oven pizza, and tea parties at the program director’s house. We have so much fun together and we can’t wait to share it all with you!

Here are some quotes from current residents when they were asked about the Resident and Community life at MGHfC:

“After my first day of intern orientation, my first thought was: wow, this decision was the best I've ever made.” –A MGHfC Intern

“I love my life at MGHfC! Residents ahead of me told me that they felt of MGHfC as another family and very quickly into intern year, I understood exactly what they meant. These are my people. While so many fun memories have occurred outside the hospital

(Red Sox games, many great meals out, resident happy hours, the list go on), it's the camaraderie within the hospital and within our program that makes it so special. This is a program that looks out for each other, lifts one another up when you need it, and at its core, helps you become the pediatrician that YOU want to be. Residency is a challenging time no matter where you go, feeling supported and valued and having a great time while doing so has made all the difference.” –A MGHfC Junior Resident

“After spending some time away at outside hospital sites during my junior year, I was excited to come back as a senior resident and spend more time on the inpatient floors at MGH. It's been great to reconnect with all the MGHfC community members from specialists to nurses to floor administrators. The community really does feel like a family where everyone knows you and cares about you as an individual.” –A MGHfC Senior Resident

Alumni

Medical alumni of the residency and fellowship programs at MassGeneral Hospital for Children have gone on to pursue excellence in pediatric medicine in hospitals across the United States and around the world. Many have assumed leadership roles in clinical practice and research. Learn more.

We encourage you to use this site to learn about alumni events and to stay connected with the hospital and your fellow alumni. For more information, please email MGHfCalumni@partners.org.

How to Apply

Resources for Applicants

THANK YOU for your interest in our program. We are delighted that you are considering a residency at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. To learn more about our program, we suggest you visit our Curriculum homepage.

We are participating in the electronic residency application service(ERAS) for the July NRMPmatch for incoming PL1 applicants. We will not accept applications through any other mechanism. The deadline for completed applications is October 15th.

Please arrange to have at least three letters of recommendation in addition to the Dean's letter included in your ERAS package. We prefer letters from mentors who know you well. We do not require a letter from your Pediatric Chairman.

We look forward to hearing from you in the fall when you begin your application process through ERAS. If you are enrolled in a U.S. Medical School and wish to do a rotation with us, please contact the Harvard Medical School registrar's office.Alternatively, direct contacts can sometimes be helpful between faculty members at your school and specific faculty members here at MGH.

Inquiries about PL2 or PL3 positions should be addressed to: residencyrecruitment@partners.org. We are grateful for your interest and look forward to your application.